Chapter 7
Tora was waiting for Alisa in her hotel room.
The windows overlooked the embankment of the long river Vltava that cut through the center of the entire city; a wide promenade stretched along the water, and people wandered there slowly in the evening, some in pairs, some alone, running their own small marathons through the damp streets.
Tora wanted to go outside too, to run along the embankment with everyone else, but she was waiting for someone.
For her rival on the ice.
Almost a month had passed since the competition in Norway, and now they were meeting again.
Tora had wanted this far more than she cared to admit.
Alisa had somehow gotten under her skin even though they talked rarely due to their high maintenance schedules, and the way she blushed and became shy whenever it came to her feelings for women was unbearably cute, at least that was what Tora thought.
She smiled, remembering Alisa’s flushed cheeks in the shower and later at her house. She had not wanted Alisa to run back to Russia the next morning, but that had been fate, and now fate had brought them together again.
Although, honestly, it had not been so unlikely. They competed in the same category, in the adult division, and it was obvious they would see each other again at the next world championship.
Tora pressed her lips together and looked at her phone screen, waiting for a notification, for some message from Alisa saying that she was not coming.
Today Tora and Loke had taken gold again, while Alisa and Lev had finished fifth and had been upset because of it.
So, as they said, Alisa probably needed consolation.
And perhaps Tora wanted to become that consolation.
Though maybe Alisa would not come after all.
Maybe she was too upset. But all Tora could think about was Alisa’s rosy cheeks, and how she had trembled beneath her hands the last time, back in Norway.
Tora closed her eyes for only a second, and immediately there was a knock at the door.
A smile lit up her face.
She quickly ran to the door, undoing a few more buttons on the white shirt she wore to sleep on trips. Sometimes she slept in an oversized T-shirt, depending on her mood, but tonight the shirt had seemed like the better choice, more seductive.
Tora unbuttoned the top of it just enough that the line between her breasts would be impossible not to notice. Then she laughed softly to herself and opened the door, leaning one shoulder lazily against the frame.
The moment Alisa saw that Tora was wearing nothing but the shirt, one that barely covered her thighs, she immediately blushed.
“Well… congratulations,” Alisa muttered. “Uh… top ten in the world?”
“What a vicious little thing you are,” Tora laughed.
Alisa squeezed past her into the room.
“I didn’t invite you in,” Tora said, closing the door behind her, still smiling at her rival.
Alisa immediately pulled out her phone and showed her the message with the room number that Tora had sent a few hours earlier, right before the competition.
“Why are you doing this to me… you…” Alisa puffed out her cheeks, her nostrils flaring with indignation.
“And how does it feel to be in the top ten, Tora?” she shot back almost hissing the words.
Tora only smiled wider.
Alisa was trying so hard to get under her skin, to make her snap back, but instead she looked like an angry kitten, absolutely harmless, all tiny claws and adorable offended noises.
“Well, you know, not bad,” Tora said with a shrug. “We’re already in the top five, actually, if you hadn’t noticed.”
She winked and walked over to the minibar beneath the television.
“Did you come here just to ask me what it’s like to be in the top league of figure skaters? In the top ten?”
“No, of course not.” Alisa snorted and added. “Get undressed, babe.”
Tora burst out laughing.
“Do you want something to drink?”
She opened the minibar.
Alisa walked farther into the room and sat down on the king-size bed.
“You have an incredible room…” she said, looking around in disbelief. “And yes, pour me whiskey with Coke Zero, please. And a slice of lemon.”
Tora laughed again.
“There isn’t any lemon, unfortunately, but I’ll make you your whiskey and Coke, babe,” she murmured.
She took a crystal glass from the freezer, poured in the whiskey, and then filled the rest with Coke Zero.
“Counting extra calories?” Tora asked, raising an eyebrow as she handed the glass to Alisa.
For a moment their fingers touched, and warmth ran through her body. She had wanted for so long to feel Alisa’s skin against her again.
“Unfortunately, yes. Lev is absolutely against me gaining even a few grams.”
“Sad.”
“And what like, Loke doesn’t watch your calories?” Alisa asked, taking a sip and savoring the taste while looking directly at Tora.
“No. Why would he? He spends half his life in the gym lifting weights for exactly that reason.”
Tora shrugged and took a sip from her own glass, whiskey without anything mixed into it, never once taking her eyes off Alisa.
Alisa took another sip of her drink, the alcohol burning a pleasant path down her throat. She shook her head, trying to clear the fog of lust that seemed to be descending over her.
“33 skaters in singles today, can you imagine?” she gasped, her words slightly slurred.
Tora crouched down next to her, the mattress dipping under her weight. She could feel the fatigue in her muscles, but the heat of Alisa’s gaze drove all thoughts of exhaustion from her mind. Tora’s eyes roamed over Alisa’s face.
“What’s it to you?” Tora murmured.
Tora hoped the alcohol would dull the sharp edges of her nerves, but her intoxication ran deeper than that, it was the anticipation of Alisa’s playful tongue, the promise of those fingers, the sheer magnetic pull of her pussy.
Tora had a weakness for the scissors position; there was something about the way their bodies locked together that felt profound, as if their very souls were being shared along with their heat.
It felt like their pussies were somehow exchanging their inner energy. It was devastatingly hot.
Feeling the ache of her own arousal building, Tora pressed her thigh more firmly against Alisa’s, the contact generating a jolt of shared heat. Alisa let out a long, heavy exhale the sound of someone finally releasing the day’s stress and took another sip of her drink.
Alisa seemed to have forgotten their conversation, her gaze now focused solely on Tora. Their faces were inches apart, Tora’s hand automatically reaching out to cup Alisa’s cheek.
“You were so beautiful on the ice today…” Tora breathed with her mouth slightly open, “I watched you with such pleasure.”
Tora’s tongue darted out to wet her lips. She could feel Alisa’s sweet breath ghosting over her own lips. Alisa’s mouth parted slightly. Tora’s heart raced with anticipation.
“You’re lying,” Alisa hissed in accusation leaning closer, their lips almost brushing.
“I’m telling the truth,” Tora murmured, her gaze locked with Alisa’s. “I love the way you skate, like a single, fluid line, a wave crashing against the ice.”
Alisa’s eyes softened.
“Poetic,” she murmured, her heart fluttering at the sincerity in Tora’s voice.
Alisa closed the scant distance between them, capturing Tora’s lips in a searing kiss. She poured all her pent-up desire, into the kiss, her tongue delving past Tora’s parted lips to tangle with her own.
Tora moaned into the kiss, the sound vibrating through her chest as Alisa’s tongue stroked along her own. She could taste the lingering sweetness of the whiskey and coke on Alisa’s tongue, the unique flavor of Alisa herself.
Her hands slid into Alisa’s hair, gripping the silken strands as she angled her head to deepen the kiss. Tora’s tongue dominated Alisa’s mouth, claiming every inch of it.
They kissed until they were both breathless, until the room spun and the world narrowed to the taste of each other’s mouths. And even then, Tora couldn’t get enough.
“Why didn’t you write to me for almost a month…?” Alisa recoiled slightly, staring with her brown eyes, whose pupils seemed like black holes, directly into Tora’s blue ones.
And honestly, Tora did not know what to answer.
That she had been busy with training?
That would only have been an excuse.
Maybe she had simply been afraid to write first, afraid of how much she wanted Alisa already, afraid of frightening her away.
“I thought you would run away and get scared of how persistent I am.”
Alisa let out a short laugh.
“Well… you were not.”
She pressed her lips together, but said nothing.
Tora lifted her chin with one hand, forcing Alisa to look back at her instead of lowering her eyes to the floor.
“Are you afraid of your lesbian feelings?” she asked with a smile.
Alisa’s heart immediately began pounding somewhere in her throat.
“I told you, I’m not into girls.”
Now it was Tora’s turn to laugh.
“And yet you’re here, in my room. You didn’t come here to discuss the competition.” Her voice became quieter, lower. “You came here because you wanted me. And I’m a girl, and you’re a girl, which means—”
Alisa did not let her finish. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Don’t call it that. Let’s not label it, it’s easier that way.”
“Easier how?” Tora narrowed her eyes slightly and took Alisa gently by the neck, brushing her hair away from her skin.
Why did such a small touch make goosebumps spread all over her body?
Alisa’s skin reacted to Tora instantly, treacherously. She let out a long breath. It was obvious she was fighting with herself.
“I’m not a lesbian. I’m not a lesbian.”
“Why do you deny it so much?” Tora asked quietly, still stroking her neck with her thumbs. “What’s so terrible about it?”
“I…”
Alisa hesitated for a long moment.
“Well… since I was a child I’ve been taught to hate people like that. That it’s shameful to be like this.”
“Are you ashamed?”
Tora truly did not understand it.